Kalimantan, by Lucius Shepard ***1/4

I fell in love with Lucius Shepard's writing while reading this. Reading Shepard is kind of like sipping a great beer, feeling the complexity of flavors swirling around in your mouth. Shepard impresses me both because of the magical sentences and the magical places he takes me while reading. I experienced a number of 'wow' moments throughout the several days it took me to read this short novel (probably just a bit too long to be classified as a novella, though I think it's often referred to as such) and immediately started looking for more Shepard to read. Some of these 'wows' resulted from a simple turn of phrase, others from the amazing and surprising places Shepard transported me (along with his characters).

Lately, I've been impressed by authors who can find beauty in simple things, which is certainly a quality Shepard possesses. His worlds aren't overtly magical or fantastic, as he usually (at least as I understand it) writes about regular earth-bound beings in somewhat exotic/jungle locations. Certainly the connections between civilization and nature are important to Shepard, and he finds ways to spring not just beauty but awe at some of the locations he conjures. There was one moment in particular in Kalimantan that I'm not likely to forget anytime soon, when the main character finds himself in a surreal and distant landscape - it was the main payoff moment in the book, and really my only complaint with the story is that this payoff came a bit too early in the story. As a result, the actual ending felt a bit perfunctory (although the resolution with the characters works for me completely).

It's always exciting for me to come across a new writer I love, and I have little doubt that I'll read much of Shepard's catalog over the next 4-5 years. I don't think he's likely to supplant Gene Wolfe on my "favorite writer" pedestal, but he seems likely to stand just behind him, for a number of reasons:
1) writing is amazing.
2) tremendous depth and understanding of human emotion yielding well-rounded characters
3) good-sized stories - lots of novellas and short stories of a good size (20-25 pagers), short novels, and a few longer novels.
4) magical otherness to his work.
I can't really explain why I'm so confident about Shepard after reading a single short novel by him, but it just seems obvious to me. He's so competent with his use of language, so adept and moving the story forward while peppering it with little tastes along the way that make the reading process a joy.
(Spring 2006)
[Note: as of four months later I have read three more Shepard books, and my immediate feeling has proven correct - he is a master.]

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